Protected blank.



C. H. W. KOERNER.

PROTECTED BLANK.

APPLICATION PILBD MAY 1w. 1911.

Patented Dec. 31, 191:2A

Willits, C&1. 191 No.

CHARLES H. W. KOERNEB, OF SIHERNOOID,A CALIFOBNI.

PROTECTED BLANK.

Specicatlon of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 31, 1912.

Application mea my 29, 1911. serial N6. 629,976.

To alliwhom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, CHARLES' H. W. KOER- NER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sherwood,in the county of Mendocino and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Protected Blanks, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to means for protecting documents against alterations. The object of the present invention isto so prepare and treat blanks which may af terward be used for checks, drafts, n otes, specifications, certificates, tickets, bill heads, and in fact all other stationery which it is desired to'use for the formation of a record or contract, and which must be rotected against alteration and change for the safety of the parties concerned; and particularly to provide a blank upon which records or other inscriptions may be made which will readily and clearly indicate the fact that an alteration or change has been attempted after the original document was filled out, and which blank may be manufactured very cheaply and in numerous designs, forms, and for any desired subject matter.

The invention,consists of the parts and the construction and combination of parts, as hereinafter more fully described and claimed, having reference to the accompany ing drawings, in Which- Figure 1 is a plan view of an improved blank before any inscription has been made. Fig. 2 shows the blank filled out. Fig. 3 is a vieu' of'the rear or back of the check.

In practising my invention I may use any appropriate material, such as paper, etc., of the desired size and form, determined by the nature of the record to be made upon the paper. lVhile I have illustrated the invention as in the form of a check, it is understood that I may make and perfect blanks of great variety which it is desired to protect against alteration or change.

As a means for protecting the filled form against erasure or other treatment in an attempt at altering the face of the instrument, I coat either a part or the Whole of one face of the blank 2 with a suitable material which is readily soluble, when moistened, with any fluid which may be used in the attempt to change the nature or denomination of the instrument.

The blank in Fig. 1 shows a portion 3 of its surface as being coated with a colorin material, here indicated as red, and whic covers that portion of the blank upon which may be Written the name of the payee, the amount to be paid, and the payer. Manifest-1y lthe coloring used upon the different checks or instruments may be varied, but in order to prevent the removal and substitution on any blanks which have a colored portion, .I indlcate by suitable means upon the blank that it originally possessed a given color protector. A sim le and practically indestructible means or indicating the given color of a blank is to watermark the paper during its manufacture with a symbol, character, or word, as shown at 4, which forms a key to indicate the color of the soluble, protecting material covering,

or upon, a part of the face of the document.

In this Way a large number of checks or v other blanks may be manufactured, in

4which would be water-marked the word red, blue, green, or in fact what-V ever color was to be placed originally upon the face of the instrument would be indicated by the water-marked word in the material of which the record sheet is manufactured. I

Having thus provided a means for prevent-ing the change of 'the coloring material upon the face of the instrument, it. is desirable that provision should be made to indicate any attempt at alteration of the face of the instrument. This is accomplished in a very simple manner in the present in stance. For instance, when the instrument is filled out, as indicated in Fig. 2, the blank may then be punctured, perforated, lacerated, or otherwise slightly mutilated, as at a, through the Words or numbers which have been written or otherwise formed upon the face of the instrument. When these lacerations have been made in the colored portion of the filled-out instrument, any attempt to erase some of the writing on the face of the instrument, or any attempt to change the face of the instrument by moistening the writing will be indicated on the back of the sheet, as in Fig. 3, by the transference or flow of the soluble coloring material from the face of the instrument through the lines of mutilation and to the back, as indicated at 5. A further protection against alteration or change of the face of the instrument is procured by forming at some suitable place upon the blank, watersent columns of figures.

marks, at 6, which may be symbols, characters or fgures, as here shown, which repre- The user of the blank, having properly filled'out its face, may then puncture or sever the sheet through the characters or gures 6 to correspond, leaving unpunctured the figures to correspond with the number of columns that is containedin the gure he writes upon the blank. For instance, if a erson draws a check for one 'hundred an forty dollars, which may be written as clearly shown in Fig.v 2, upon the line provided, and also Written in number form, as at 7, on-the blank, he then counts the number o-digits in the whole number, which in this instance equals three digits, and perforates or sevcrs Vthe material of theinstrur'nent'through .two

of thecharacters or :figures atti, thus leaving three uninjured characters, indicating that there are three digits in the number which he originally inscribed upon the face of the instrument. This provision for the protection against alteration of the number, by reason of the limiting, or indicating that a certain number of digits Was used in the original figure is very important, and a very simple means for protecting the instrument against alteration. ln order to aid personsin lling out the blanks, l may use iigures at 6 as l, 2, 3, 4 and 5, thus permitting this particular check to be drawn for a sum not exceeding ivedigits; then any number may be used having from one to five columns.I

Aand as many of the column-indicating characters at 6 may be indicated as Will leave a number suiiclent to deslgnate how many columns were 1n the orlglnal number Written or otherwise made upon the check.'

Hence it will be seen that my system and means for protecting instruments against alteration or change after they have been once properly filled out is very secure and simple, and requires no elaborate calculation or study, and may be rendered complete Loaexroe lThe color selected should'be preferably different .from the color of blank. and these may be of any tintor color desired.

Having thus described my invention, What l claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- 1-. A document having means for protecting it against alteration, said means comprising a soluble coloring material applied to the field designed to contain the Written portion 0f the documentI and an inerasable key on the document defining the color of the material which the written portion of lsaid document should bear to be genuine.

2. A document having means for protecting it against alteration, said means omprising a soluble coating lon the field designed to contain the Written portion oi the document, said document having al peri manent sign to indicate thecolor of the coat ing so applied and said document having a series of characters representing t-he num ber of the digits in the figure which may be placed upon the face of the document, the soluble coating and the` characters representing said digits occupying a commonield on'the same face of the document, and

certain of said characters designed to be canceled until a number of them remain equal to thenumber of digits in the figure.

ln testimony whereof I have hereunto set 'my hand in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

` CHARLES H. W. KOERNER.

VVit-nesses ZrrA HAsrINcs, CHARLES EDELMAN. 

